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Saturday, May 31, 2014

We have so much to do that I can hardly keep track of it all. And even though I continue to check thing after thing off of my to-do list, I feel like I'm making no progress. I'll never reach the top of this mountain.

And when we do reach the point that everything's packed up and we're climbing into a car to drive for the next six days to our destination, what then? We'll driving with two little girls across the whole country, away from everyone we've ever known, to go live in a place we've never been before.

Friday, May 30, 2014

This one was a couple weeks ago. I cut some new sponges
into different shapes for the girls to eventually use for sponge
painting. They were both playing with the shapes, and Zelda put the star-shaped sponge in her mouth and started crawling around with it hanging out of her
mouth.
Me: "What are you doing, starmouth?"
Ellie, giggling hysterically: "WHAT ARE YOU DOING, STARMOUTH? What are you DOING? STARMOUTH!" Laughs and laughs. "What are you doing, STARMOUTH?"

We played at the beach on Saturday. It was getting late (for the girls, close to 6) so we got the girls back to the car and were putting them in their carseats.
Jason: "Let's go home."
Ellie: "Yeah! And watch Toy Story 3."

As we were driving back from the beach, we saw a buffalo statue and pointed it out to Ellie. She then kept calling it a "fubbalo." Also, I was telling her a made up story about herself and a purple cat looking for Buzz Lightyear's shoes, in the tradition of Dora the Explorer, and at one point I said "Oh man!" and then she kept saying "Oh man!" with these really funny inflections, very similar to how Swiper the fox says it.

Ellie: "We're going to the cars!"
Me: "The cars?"
Ellie: "Yeah! I think I left the big cars and the little cars, and the horsies, lots of horsies, at Disneyland."

One night as I was putting her to bed, Ellie was playing with a book in her bed and started to say, "It's getting on my nerves!" over and over. I was racking my brains, trying to figure out where she picked up that phrase from since neither Jason or I ever say that. Then I realized - Toy Story. In the first Toy Story, Woody says "And stop it with the space-man thing! It's getting on my nerves!" to Buzz.

We drove to Jason's parents' house one day this week. When we got there, Ellie said to me: "We're at Nana's house, princess girl!"

Jason, Jason's parents, and I were all hanging out in their family room at their house. Ellie walked into the room with a pack of string cheese and asked enthusiastically, "How about cheese for everybody?"

One day, after bath time, Ellie got the lotion.
Ellie: "Let's put lotion on the girls! Let's put it on the girls!"
"The girls" are Ellie and Zelda, so she was referring to herself and Zelda. :) In the car a while later -
Ellie: "The girls are lotioned! We're lotioned."

At the dentist's office, when we had gotten back to the room, the dental assistant put "Toy Story" into the TV and it started playing. The Disney castle came on screen.
Ellie: "It's Jesus! It's Jesus and the temple."
(I have no idea what the dental assistant was thinking.)

What we did this week

On Friday we got to have dinner at In-n-Out with our friends Tyler and Dani. They were in town for the weekend, and we really wanted to see them because (since we're moving next month) it was the last time we'll see them in who knows how long. It was really great to hang out with them. :)

Ellie's gone up a couple shoe sizes.

When I asked her what she was doing (that's my eyelash curler), she said "My eyepits are feeling."

On Saturday after Jason woke up (he had work the night before), we drove down to Laguna Niguel. That morning I had spotted a really good deal on craigslist - three cases of Zelda's special allergy formula for $75 all together. It was worth the drive to go down and buy it. It saved us about $320.

After we bought the formula, we stopped by a little beach we've never been to before - Aliso Beach - and played for a while. Ellie wanted to play on the jungle gym instead of down by the waves, so that's what we did.

After playing on the jungle gym for a while, Ellie wanted to play with her sand toys. Her favorite toy of the day was the sifter, which she used to separate "treasure" (small rocks) out of the sand.

Ellie's treasure.

On Sunday we went to Jason's parents' ward for church (they both gave talks in sacrament meeting) and then hung out at their house all afternoon. Michael & Shelley and Tyler & Sarah both came over too, so we got to hang out with them and with all the babies!

All the brothers and their babies.

All the daddies and all their kids.

Emily and Ellie were being silly and shoving blocks in their shirts.

Baby James! Look at all his hair!

On Monday, Memorial Day, we got to go over and hang out with my family at my Uncle Murray and Aunt Wendy's house. It was so fun. We got to hang out with my aunts and uncles and cousins, and take Zelda and Ellie swimming in the pool and hot tub, and have a bbq.

My grandma and grandpa

Chocolate Malted Crunch. It's my favorite ice cream of all time.

On Tuesday we got a ton of stuff done. We made a list the night before of errands we needed to do, and then we did them. One of the errands was at our church, and we happened to see a juvenile Cooper's Hawk eating some kind of little animal up in this big tree on the front lawn. I pointed him out to Ellie, and told him that he was eating. She replied, "He's eating his eggs, Mommy! His baby eggs." So then I had to explain that birds don't eat their own eggs. But I didn't want to tell her specifically what he was eating, so I just said it was meat. A couple minutes later I asked her, "Do you see the birdy? What's he eating?" and she replied cheerfully, "He's eating, uh... a apple."

Wednesday, May 28, 2014

Among all of the other things we're trying to get done before we move, Ellie had her first visit to the dentist this week.

After reading some reviews on Yelp of different dentists that our insurance covers, I decided to make her appointment at a pediatric specialist in Chino. They're a bit farther away from us (about 20 minutes) than other dentists, but they are super specialized for kids and that's what we needed for Ellie. We knew she was going to be nervous, and we wanted someone who dealt with nervous kids all day long and knew how to help them relax and to treat them the best.

So, we drove out to the office yesterday afternoon. Their waiting area had a little train table for kids to play with, and also a table with coloring books and crayons. When it was Ellie's turn to go back, she got to pick out a movie from a whole bunch that they had (we picked Toy Story for her), and they put that in the TV they had in the room and turned it on for her. They also had (and this is my FAVORITE part) a little service dog that they brought to her room. Ellie was able to pet the dog, and that really helped her calm down.

Ellie didn't like the actual tooth exam at all (who does?) but the dentist was really great with her. She was very gentle and fast and it was over as soon as it could be. And then Ellie got to pet the dog again. That seriously really helped. They also gave Ellie a sticker. Ellie didn't actually want to leave, because she just wanted to sit there and pet the dog all day. Even when we got her detached from the dog and back out to the lobby, she wanted to play with the train table and coloring books again. So, we stayed for another couple minutes for her to play with both tables and be satisfied.

It was a really good experience. We knew Ellie was going to be scared, which is why we picked a dentist office that specialized in kids, and they were great. And the service dog was the best.

Friday, May 23, 2014

Me: "Ellie, if Jesus was here, what would you say?"
Ellie: "Um, Jesus? What are you doing?"

Our sister-in-law Shelley arrived at Nana's house with Ellie's cousins James and Emily. We went outside to meet them, and Ellie saw them getting out of the car.
Ellie, really excited: "It's my friend Emily! Emily's home!"

Ellie spilled her milk in the kitchen. Running over to me, she yelled: "Mommy, I need a towel! Jesus make you happy!"

We were getting Ellie ready for bed. Jason pulled her t-shirt up so we could put her pajama shirt on, but her t-shirt got stuck on her head , with her face sticking out the bottom. Ellie thought it was really funny, and ran over to the mirror to look at herself with her t-shirt stuck on her head.
Ellie: "It's a hat. It's a silly hat. I'm like a mushroom."

Ellie: "It's my mouth, mommy. My special Ellie mouth."

What Zelda did this week

She stood up on everything. Seriously. She's been pulling herself to a stand on everything she can get a hold of. Sometimes she'll stand up on something but then not know how to get down, and whimper until we come and rescue her. But mostly she's fine. :)

She's also been eating a lot of rice cereal this week (she loves it) and has also been eating baby puffs. It's way earlier than Ellie could eat puffs; she used to choke on them and we had to break them up into three little pieces for her to eat (until she was like 8 or 9 or 10 months old), but Zelda just shoves them in her mouth and eats them no problem. So yay for her not choking on everything like Ellie did!

Here's an adorable video of her playing peekaboo with Daddy this week and laughing and laughing:

What we did this week

What did we do this week? Um, Toy Story. I don't know about you, but that pretty much sums up my week.

Ellie is so into Toy Story. Toy Story, Toy Story 2, Toy Story 3, all day long, every day. She gets more into the movies every time she watches them, and talks to me about them and what's happening and what's about to happen.

Her favorite character is Buzz. She likes the others too, especially Woody, but she's really enthusiastic about Buzz. So I went on craigslist earlier this week, and found a Buzz Lightyear that someone was selling for $12.

Jason picked it up from the people on his way home from work one day, and walked in with it in a bag. When he pulled it out, we thought Ellie was going to be really excited to see it, but she was weirded out. She was nervous. She wanted there to be some distance between her and Buzz. We didn't want to push him on her, so we put him high on the counter away from her. She could see him all day, but he wasn't too close to her.

So that day, she kept looking at him throughout the day. We let Zelda play with him because she had no problem, and let Ellie see Zelda playing happily with them. We also pushed his buttons occasionally to get her used to the noises and talked about him with her.

The next day when she woke up the first thing she wanted to do in the morning was have me give the toy to Zelda to play with, and she sat really close and watched and talked to us while Zelda was playing with him. She got more and more comfortable around the toy that day, and had me push his buttons and talked to me about how loud he was.

The next day (Wednesday), she woke up and immediately wanted to play with him, and carried him around all day and did everything with him. She fed him play food, she watched the movies with him, she brushed his teeth at night.

"Cheese for Buzz, Mom! Cheese for Buzz!" (She wanted me to take a picture of him.)

Soon Buzz was going on our walks with us...

And going to Nana and Papa's house...

And being given special places to sit...

And being read to...

Buzz even came with us to Grandpa's law office yesterday.

Ellie has a Jessie the cowgirl doll as well (given to her by our friend Farnosh), and Ellie carries her around with Buzz as well and sleeps with her at night. Ellie has wanted both Jessie and Buzz to sleep with her the past couple nights, and when I've checked on her the last two nights she's been holding Jessie in her arms as she slept. :)

Believe it or not, we have had a life outside of Toy Story this week, too.

On Saturday we went over to Nana and Papa's house, and we got to meet baby James!!! Shelley drove out with James and Emily all the way from Lake Elsinore by herself (Michael was sick), and we got to meet and hold baby James for the first time. He is sooo sweet. He just cuddled with us and slept most of the time. He was just adorable. :D

The boy cousins! James and Everett. James makes Everett look so big!

Nana and all the California cousins! James, Everett, Zelda, Ellie, and Emily.

Ellie was so happy to play with her cousin Emily, too. Those two just love each other. I honestly think that'll be one of the hardest parts of moving to North Carolina - Ellie wanting to play with Emily, but she won't be able to. :(

On Sunday when we were getting ready for church, Jason tied this ribbon to Zelda's head and it was just ridiculously cute:

He is way better at accessorizing the girls than I am. I usually just get them in their basic outfits and am good to go, but he adds cute bows and ribbons and shoes and all the extras and just makes them that much even cuter.

You know what else is cute?

Yes. The kittens we got to play with on Tuesday.

I think this is how we all felt about the kittens.

Our friend Sara's parents' are currently housing a cat who gave birth to kittens a month and a half ago, and she invited us over to come play with them. When I asked Ellie on Tuesday if she wanted to go play with kittens, she jumped up from what she was doing, yelled "I need my shoes!" and ran to the door.

There were five kittens - three black ones, one orange one, and one orange and white one - and they were all just as adorable as you think they would be. It was so fun to get to hold them and play with them, and both Ellie and Zelda had a blast.

This was the mommy cat. She was one of the prettiest cats I've ever seen.

Sara, who is an incredibly talented artist, also offered to paint Ellie's face. She let Ellie pick out what she wanted on her cheek, and Ellie picked a goldfish. She sat really still while Sara painted it on:

And was so excited when it was done and she had a goldfish on her face.

We had such a fun time at Sara's house. Thank you for having us over Sara!

Afterwards we went to Shapell Park. Zelda played in the grass while Ellie played on the playground.

hahaha

After these pictures were taken, Ellie, our water-phobic, won't-let-us-even-give-her-a-bath-lately-because-she-doesn't-want-water-touching-her-head Ellie, stuck her head into the water stream of the water fountain over and over, until her hair and shirt were both soaking and drenched all the way through.

On Wednesday we did laundry over at Nana and Papa's house, and yesterday the girls and I went at visited my dad at his office. And every day this week we've been working on various things (stuff to do with buying our house, moving, vaccinations for Jason's school) to move to North Carolina.

The last picture this week is the one below. Ellie and I were playing with chalk out on our balcony yesterday. We were drawing shapes and pictures, and I wrote out her name and "Dad" and practiced reading them with her. After we had been playing for a little while, I drew a yellow star, and Ellie came over with her blue chalk and inside the star she carefully drew two straight lines next to each other, and then a third below that swooped around and connected them all. And then she said, "It's an E!" And it was! Ellie drew a letter! I was so excited and I yelled to Jason and he came over and saw it too, and we were both just kind of totally surprised and excited that Ellie did that. Go Ellie!

Welcome to the record of our family's adventures! My name is Jocelyn. My husband Jason and I have been best friends ever since we started high school. We got married on April 23, 2010, in the Newport Beach Temple of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. We live in North Carolina with our beautiful little girls, Ellie, Zelda, and Susanna.